Girish Chodangar (middle) with others during press conference in Kohima on April 15. (Morung Photo)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | April 15
All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidents Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge will be addressing a public rally on April 16 at 12 noon at Super Market, Dimapur.
Announcing this during a press conference here at Congress Bhavan, Girish Chodangar, AICC incharge of Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura appealed the people of Nagaland to join the rally and extends support to INDIA alliance candidate S Supongmeren Jamir.
“We are confident that we are forming the INDIA alliance government at the centre,” he said, while exuding confidence that Nagaland would contribute one seat. “We are confident that Nagaland will find a berth in the cabinet in Delhi,” he maintained. The way we are moving and getting the response from the various section of the society including those who work with the present government, many of them are unhappy the way the BJP-led government have attacked the democratic institutions, the minority institutions all over the country, he said.
Accusing that the present BJP led government had created the fear and insecurity among the minorities, he said, “This election is about the future of India. This election is to safeguard our constitution, to safeguard our values that we believe in and to safeguard the purity that we have in India.” This election will decide the future fate of the country, he said.
The mood of the country is changing, Chodangar said adding that the people are no more believing the fake promises and fake guarantees of Modi.
Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) Working President Khriedi Theunuo also extended invitation to the NGOs, civil society organizations and church leaders to come in large number and attend the public rally in Dimapur.
Apprehension over
potential booth capturing
Meanwhile, Theunuo expressed apprehension over potential booth capturing “because the ruling government is frustrated with the report they are getting that in their own report suggest that INDIA alliance candidates winning and their candidates is going to loss very badly.”
Now, they are completely out of ideas and frustrated and they are trying to do and use all the means, trying to win this election by all illegal means, he claimed.
He termed the recent statement of Nagaland’s Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton, appealing the GBs to vote on behalf of the entire village, as against the guideline of Election Commission of India (ECI) and against Model Code of Conduct.
Stating that the NPCC had already filed a complaint, he said “We are happy that the ECI has also taken it as Suo Moto matter.” “But this matter does not end there. It is a very very serious matter,” he added.
The Working President also alleged that the ruling governments with the BJP party are working out strategies for booth capturing, adding that in the certain assembly segments and certain villages also, the process already started two days back
“They are already pushing the money, putting the system in order to do the booth capturing,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the CEO, polling officials and entire machinery of ECI will take this matter very seriously. “The ECI wants to make this election free and fair…There should be completely free and fair election and there should not be any incident of booth capturing,” he said.
He also appealed the village committees to ensure that booth capturing does not happen. One person one vote is a franchise that is given to us. One person should exercise only one vote, he said. We don’t want any illegality, any violation, any booth capturing happening, he said.
He said that the BJP-led government has already concluded that they have lost the election and they are attempting to win a losing battle through booth capturing.
He appealed the people of Nagaland to be more and more vigilant and any incident should be reported to election authority. “We are confident that booth capturing will be the story of the past,” he said. “We respect and will abide by all the Model Code of Conduct. We will not do anything that is beyond Model Code of Conduct. We will abide by that,” he said and appealed other political parties to do so and not make any attempt for booth capturing.
Meanwhile, Chodangar said that the recent visit of National BJP President JP Nadda to Nagaland shows that the state government is completely control by party and they (state government) are part and parcel of BJP. He said the people of Nagaland have to decide whether they will support the party which attacked the minorities in various parts of the country.
Later, NPCC prayed the Chief Electoral Officer, Nagaland to control booth capturing on polling day on April 19.
The NPCC in its letter addressed to the later stated that there were reports of the NDPP-BJP alliance supporters preparing for booth capturing on the polling day to the Lok Sabha 2024 from 1 Nagaland Parliamentary Constituency under 1 Dimapur-1 AC, 2 Dimapur-11 AC, 3 Dimapur-III AC, 4 Ghaspani-1 AC, 5 Ghaspani-11 AC, 9 Kohima Town AC, 11 Northern Angami-II AC, 19 Phek AC, 20 Meluri AC, 37 Tyui AC, 38 Wokha AC and 29 Jangpetkong AC. It requested CEO Nagaland to do the needful on the said polling day and ensure free and fair election in the state.
